El Salvador Nov 08-09 Coffee Exports Down 4.8% To 22,386 Bags

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

El Salvadoran coffee exports in November, the second month of the new 2008-09 crop cycle, fell 4.8% to 22,386 bags of 60 kilograms each, the Salvadoran Coffee Council said Thursday.

This compares with total Salvadoran coffee exports of 23,522 bags shipped in November last year during the 2007-08 crop cycle (October-September), the council said in its latest monthly report for the new harvest year.

Total coffee exports from El Salvador from the beginning of the 2008-09 crop year Oct.1 through Nov. 30, meanwhile, declined 17% to 51,386 bags, compared to shipments of 61,833 bags in the first two months of the 2007-08 cycle, the council said.

Physical harvesting of El Salvador's 2008-09 harvest recently started in the medium altitudes, but has yet to start in earnest in most of the country's key producing high-altitude areas later this month.

Coffee from the new harvest, however, normally doesn't start reaching the market until early December and exports shipped in the first few months of the new cycle traditionally consist almost exclusively of old-crop beans.

El Salvadoran coffee exports in the last 2007-08 crop cycle ended at 1,464,288 bags, up 20% from 1,220,137 bags in the 2006-07 cycle and in line with forecasts for exports to reach close to 1.5 million bags, the council said last month.

-By Maja Wallengren, Dow Jones Newswires; mwallengren@hotmail.com